CSCS Services & facilities maintenance Specialist Test
SAFBuilding services and facilities maintenance operatives.
Sitting the SAF test soon? Practise under exam conditions on our timed paper: 50 questions in 45 minutes, 20 on Services & facilities maintenance and 30 from the core.
50
questions
45
minutes
45/50
to pass (90%)
£23.50
test fee
What the Services & facilities maintenance test covers
The Services & facilities maintenance specialist section tests working in occupied and live buildings, permit-to-work systems, lone working and dynamic risk assessment, safe isolation of building services, and asbestos awareness in existing buildings. Those questions sit alongside the five core Operatives knowledge areas, and CITB calls this specialism HVACE: services and facilities maintenance. In detail:
- Working in occupied and live buildings
- Permit-to-work systems
- Lone working and dynamic risk assessment
- Safe isolation of building services
- Asbestos awareness in existing buildings
Practise Services & facilities maintenance questions
A practice quiz of 20, drawn fresh each time from 101 exam-style questions with worked explanations, written for the SAF specialist section from the regulations and HSE guidance that govern this work.
Services & facilities maintenance (SAF): practice quiz
- 20 questions · 30 minutes · pass mark 90%
- Answers and explanations are shown at the end, with every question to review.
- A fresh 20 questions every time, drawn from all 101 in this bank.
- About 90 seconds a question, against about 54 in the real test, so there is time to think.
10 sample Services & facilities maintenance questions and answers
These 10 come from the 101 questions the practice quiz above draws from, written out with the correct answer and the reasoning behind it. Read them through when you want to revise rather than test yourself.
1. You are servicing an air handling unit in an occupied office. Your tools, steps and spare ducting are stacked across a corridor that leads to a fire exit. What does the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 require?
Answer: Routes to emergency exits and the exits themselves must be kept clear at all times
- A) The corridor may be stacked out while the job is live, as long as it is all cleared away before the office closes
- B) Routes to emergency exits and the exits themselves must be kept clear at all times (correct answer)
- C) Blocking the route is allowed once a warning sign has been taped up telling people to use the far stairs
- D) The route only has to be kept clear in working hours, so tools can be left in it once the staff have gone home
Why: Article 14 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires that routes to emergency exits, and the exits themselves, are kept clear at all times. Storing tools or materials in an escape route in an occupied building breaches that duty even for a short job.
2. You have had asbestos awareness training. Your supervisor asks you to take out a panel of asbestos insulating board. What should you do?
Answer: Refuse the work, because asbestos awareness training does not allow you to work on asbestos
- A) Remove the panel, because the asbestos awareness course you sat through covers work of this kind
- B) Remove the panel wearing a disposable dust mask, and double bag the offcuts before they go in the skip
- C) Refuse the work, because asbestos awareness training does not allow you to work on asbestos (correct answer)
- D) Remove the panel yourself, provided the whole job will take less than one hour from start to finish
Why: HSE is explicit that asbestos awareness training does not allow you to work on asbestos. Awareness training teaches you to recognise asbestos and avoid disturbing it, and most work on asbestos insulating board must be done by a contractor licensed by HSE.
3. Your firm is the responsible person for an office building used by tenants, their staff and their visitors. What does article 8 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 require in relation to the people in the building who are not your employees?
Answer: General fire precautions as may reasonably be required in the circumstances of the case to make sure the premises are safe for them
- A) General fire precautions as may reasonably be required in the circumstances of the case to make sure the premises are safe for them (correct answer)
- B) Nothing at all, because the duty in article 8 covers only the people your own firm employs in the building
- C) Only a fire risk assessment, with no precautions actually taken until one of the tenants asks the responsible person for them in writing
- D) Precautions limited to the ones set out in the tenants' leases, because people who are not employees are covered by contract and not by article 8
Why: Article 8(1) of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 splits the duty in two. For employees the responsible person must take general fire precautions to ensure their safety so far as is reasonably practicable. For relevant persons who are not employees the responsible person must take such general fire precautions as may reasonably be required in the circumstances of the case to ensure that the premises are safe.
4. You are the person in control of a building with cooling towers and a large hot and cold water system. What does HSE say you must do to manage the legionella risk?
Answer: Appoint someone competent, often called the responsible person, who has enough authority, skills, knowledge of the system and experience to take responsibility for controlling the risk
- A) Rely on the water hygiene contractor's own logbook and certificates and take no further steps yourself, because the contract puts the whole of the water system in their hands from the day it starts
- B) Send the local authority a copy of the water risk assessment every year and keep the stamped copy in the site logbook with the plant records
- C) Appoint someone competent, often called the responsible person, who has enough authority, skills, knowledge of the system and experience to take responsibility for controlling the risk (correct answer)
- D) Have the hot and cold water system sampled only after a case of the disease has been traced back to the building by the local authority team
Why: HSE states that an employer or person in control of premises must appoint someone competent to help meet their health and safety duties and to take responsibility for controlling any identified risk from legionella. HSE describes that responsible person as having sufficient authority, competence, necessary skills, knowledge of the system and experience, and says that where several people share the role everyone must know what they are responsible for.
5. There is one full face respirator in the maintenance store and three operatives who might need it during the week. What do the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 say about that?
Answer: Where it is necessary to make sure the equipment is hygienic and otherwise free of risk to health, it must be provided to a person for use only by that person
- A) Sharing is fine as long as the respirator is wiped down with a sanitising wipe and left to dry between each of the three users
- B) Where it is necessary to make sure the equipment is hygienic and otherwise free of risk to health, it must be provided to a person for use only by that person (correct answer)
- C) Sharing is fine so long as each of the three operatives has been face fit tested on that model of respirator beforehand
- D) Sharing only becomes a problem if the store is left unlocked and the respirator goes missing off the shelf between visits
Why: Regulation 4(4) of the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 requires that, where it is necessary to ensure that personal protective equipment is hygienic and otherwise free of risk to health, the equipment is provided to a person for use only by that person. Regulation 4(3)(c) separately requires that it is capable of fitting the wearer correctly.
6. Which of these does HSE's guidance on the Workplace Regulations (L24) give as an example of equipment that needs a system of maintenance?
Answer: Anchorage points for the safety harnesses used by window cleaners
- A) The kettles and microwave ovens in the staff kitchen area
- B) The chairs and tables provided in the staff rest room
- C) Anchorage points for the safety harnesses used by window cleaners (correct answer)
- D) The desk telephones and computer screens used by the office staff
Why: L24 paragraph 46 lists emergency lighting, fencing, fixed window cleaning equipment, anchorage points for safety harnesses, window opening limiters, powered doors, escalators and moving walkways as needing a system of maintenance under regulation 5.
7. A damaged glass panel beside an office door is being replaced. According to HSE's guidance on the Workplace Regulations (L24), when does glazing in doors and door side panels need particular attention to be safety material or protected?
Answer: Where any part of the glazing is at shoulder level or below
- A) Where any part of the glazing is at shoulder level or below (correct answer)
- B) Only where the glazing is above head height in the door
- C) Only where the glazing is more than 1 metre wide in total
- D) Only where the door is on a fire escape route out of the building
Why: L24 paragraph 138 says particular attention is needed in doors, gates and door side panels where any part of the transparent or translucent surface is at shoulder level or below, and in windows, walls and partitions at waist level or below.
8. How often does HSE guidance say shower heads, inserts and hoses should be dismantled, cleaned and descaled as a legionella control?
Answer: Quarterly, or as the rate of fouling or other risk factors indicate
- A) Only once, when the shower is first commissioned and put into use
- B) Only when a case of legionnaires' disease has been reported to them
- C) Quarterly, or as the rate of fouling or other risk factors indicate (correct answer)
- D) Every five years, when the shower mixer valves are replaced
Why: HSG274 Part 2 Table 2.1 says removable parts, heads, inserts and hoses of showers and spray taps should be dismantled, cleaned and descaled quarterly, or as indicated by the rate of fouling or other risk factors.
9. Article 11 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires fire safety arrangements. What must those arrangements cover?
Answer: The effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of the preventive and protective measures
- A) The effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of the preventive and protective measures (correct answer)
- B) The insurance cover for the building, the claims history and the sums insured against a fire
- C) The design of any new extension, which has to be approved by the fire and rescue service before any work starts
- D) The training records of the fire and rescue service crews who are likely to attend the premises
Why: Article 11(1) requires arrangements for the effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of the preventive and protective measures, and article 11(2) requires them to be recorded.
10. A building has a dry riser and a firefighting lift. Which of these does article 38 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 cover, where necessary to safeguard firefighters?
Answer: The premises and the facilities, equipment and devices provided for firefighters' use or protection
- A) The firefighters' personal protective clothing, which has to be stored in the building's plant room
- B) The public roads leading from the nearest fire station to the front entrance of the building
- C) The premises and the facilities, equipment and devices provided for firefighters' use or protection (correct answer)
- D) The fire and rescue service's own engines, hoses and breathing apparatus when they attend a call
Why: Article 38(1) applies to the premises and to any facilities, equipment and devices provided for the use by or protection of firefighters, where that is necessary to safeguard their safety.
How the Services & facilities maintenance test is structured
CITB builds every Specialist test the same way: the five core knowledge areas from the Operatives test, plus questions specific to your specialism. Those core areas are working environment, occupational health, safety, high risk activities and specialist, and they account for the larger share of the 50 questions. The practical consequence is that most of your revision for the SAF test is the same revision every operative on site does, so start there and add the specialist material on top.
Same format as every HS&E test
50 questions in 45 minutes with a 45 out of 50 pass mark. Five wrong answers are allowed and a sixth fails you.
Booked as one exam
The core and specialist questions come in one 45-minute appointment costing £23.50, not as two separate sittings.
Your card decides it
The specialism follows from the CSCS card you are applying for. Confirm with the official Card Finder before booking.
Revising for Services & facilities maintenance: fix the core first
Because the core is shared, the fastest way to raise your score on any specialist test is to fix weaknesses in the core knowledge first. Sit a full CSCS mock test for Operatives cold, read the per-topic breakdown, then drill whichever of the CSCS test questions and answers cost you the most marks. Come back to the specialist material once the core is reliable, because a specialist section cannot rescue a weak core: the core is simply the bigger half of the paper.
When you are clearing 45 out of 50 consistently rather than once, read what ID to bring and how to book the CSCS test. Turning up without the right identification means no test and no refund, which is the commonest avoidable way to lose the £23.50.
Related specialist tests
These sit closest to Services & facilities maintenance in trade and in hazard. If you are unsure which specialism your card requires, compare them before you book.
Next steps
Confirm this is the right test with the official CSCS Card Finder, then book your Specialist test. Compare the other 11 specialist tests if you are unsure.
Sit a timed 50-question SAF paper, 20 Services & facilities maintenance questions and 30 from the core, on the CSCS Specialist mock test.
Topic name and code verified against citb.co.uk, July 2026.